The present invention relates generally to the field of packaging agricultural products in bags and, more particularly, to packaging carrots and other elongated produce in large, institutional sized plastic bags.
Machines for packaging agricultural products have been used in the art for quite some time. For example, known machines will use a sheet of synthetic plastic material to form a tube which is then cut and sealed to form a plastic bag for packaging the produce. These operations are usually performed in steps at stations connected by a conveyor belt. A pair of such packaging machines has been used in combination for providing increased production speed, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,269,016. Machines for feeding empty bags into a connected packaging machine have also been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,468. However, the preparation of large, institutional sized bags of carrots and similar produce has been difficult to accomplish by machine and has traditionally required expensive, and time-consuming manual labor.
With the foregoing in mind, the present invention advantageously provides a produce bagging machine for filling large, institutional sized bags of carrots. The machine is additionally suitable for packaging other elongated agricultural products such as string beans.
The present bagging machine advantageously deposits the elongated produce into the bags in substantially parallel alignment. In addition, the machine fills the bags by successive deposits of predetermined amounts beginning with a deposit adjacent the bottom of the bag, each successive deposit being adjacent the previous one. In this manner, the machine advantageously reduces impact damage to the produce and fills bags with produce in substantially parallel alignment, making the packaged bags more attractive to the consumer, easier to handle, and easier to pack for shipment.
The produce bagging machine includes a support frame, positioned to support the machine on a surface. Two bag supplies are positioned on the support frame so that each supply comprises a roll of bag material providing a continuous stream of bags. Two bag holders are also positioned on the support frame to receive bags from the two bag supplies. Each bag holder opens each bag and holds the bag ready for filling with produce.
A filling station is positioned on the support frame and extends upwardly therefrom in the form of a tower. Produce is delivered through the filling station so as to fill a bag held in each of the bag holders. The filling station comprises a filling chute which moves to an upward position in the tower for receiving produce from a weighing machine working in combination with the bagging machine. When the filling chute has received produce it moves downwardly into the open bag so that the produce is deposited adjacent the bottom of the bag to substantially reduce impact damage to the produce. The filling chute cycles between the upward and downward positions to make successive deposits of produce into the bag, each successive downward movement controlled so as to deposit the produce adjacent the previous deposit. The filling chute thereby deposits the elongated produce into the bags in substantially parallel alignment, so that the elongated produce lies substantially horizontally along the bottom of the plastic bag and stacks upon itself in a neat and orderly fashion.
A main shuttle frame is positioned so as to move in a reciprocating manner on the support frame. The shuttle comprises two bag holders connected to substantially opposite ends of the shuttle frame, whereby the shuttle reciprocatingly positions each bag holder under the filling station for filling the bag with produce.
Additionally, the produce bagging machine preferably packages carrots, uses continuous plastic bag material, and includes a programmable logic controller (xe2x80x9cPLCxe2x80x9d) operably connected to coordinate the functions of the machine. The machine is preferably used in combination with a produce weighing machine connected to the PLC and positioned to deliver a predetermined quantity of produce into the filling chute for deposit into the bags.
The machine provides automatic preparation and filling of the bags. While a first bag is being filled, a second bag is being positioned in the bag holder and opened in preparation for filling. Once the first bag is filled, the shuttle frame moves the filled bag to a bag loading station where an operator manually unloads the bag from the machine, subsequently a new bag being automatically loaded into the bag holder to await filling. While the first filled bag is being unloaded and replaced, the machine is filling a second bag. The produce bagging machine reduces the number of personnel required, while providing an increased production rate.